National Treasure: Serenity's Story
by Serenity556
Summary: Ben's Brother died in a car crash, leaving Ben with his 12-year-old adoptive daugher. 3 years later, they are on an adventure only known as the National Treasure!
1. Prolouge

_It was a dark and stormy night when a small, twelve-year-old Dakota Indian girl was patrolling an out-of-bounds area: Her twenty-three-year-old uncle's room. Her only form of protection from the shadows was an old, worn out flashlight. She gently jumped on the bed and went to the shelf above the headboard. _

_She had always had her eye on a book her great-grandfather and her youngest uncle had kept generations of secrets in its bindings. She grabbed the book and turned to see her twenty-three-year-old uncle behind her and her great-grandfather in the doorway. _

"_I just wanted to read it…I didn't want to steal it…" tears started to form in her big chocolate brown eyes. _

"_Grandpa?" her uncle turned and her grandfather nodded. _

"_Do you want to hear the mystifying and complex story that started this book?" a blank stare crossed over her face. Her uncle tried to think of an easy way to tell the Gates family story. _

"_Sit." The little girl jumped up and landed next to her uncle, with the book still tightly held in her hands. _

"_Serenity, Did you know that my great-grandfather's great grandfather was the stable-boy for the last signer to the Declaration of Independence?" Serenity thought for a moment on how this man related to her and then eyes widened in awe. _

"_The night Thomas McKean was dying, he ordered the stable boy…" _

"_Grandpa!" squealed Serenity. _

"_Yes, Grandpa, to go to the white house and tell president Andrew Jackson a clue to a place where it housed thousands of years of gold and silver and other valuables, but the report was that the president was out that night. Mr. McKean gave grandpa a small slip of paper…"_

_He motioned for the book and pulled out an ancient piece of paper stating the scribbled words: _

**The secret lies with Charlotte**

_Serenity's eyes were large. _

"_Dad, Ben doesn't need be filling my only granddaughter's head full of that nonsense." _

_Ben and Serenity looked up to see her grandfather and Ben's father talking sternly to their grandfather. _

"_But Papa, what if there really was a treasure?" questioned Serenity, standing on the bed. _

"_Dad, what if it is true?" Ben said with the same curiosity as Serenity, he stood with the book in his hands. _

"_If it was real, then we could be Catrillionairs!" squealed Serenity, jumping on the bed. _

"_Did he tell you the rest of the story?" said Serenity's grandfather, glaring at Ben. Serenity jumped to her sitting position on the bed, her full attention for the story. _

"_Ben, since you started the story, why don't you finish it?" Serenity's eyes darted from her grandfather to her uncle. _

"_Dad, that will crush all hope—" _

"_Exactly." Spat his father. Ben tried to fight his way out, but he could not win against an experienced debater. _

"_Do you really want to hear what happened?" Ben pleaded, not wanting to crush her disintegrating hope. Serenity started to bounce on the bed with impatience. Her uncle sighed and finished the story: _

"_When the president heard that Mr. McKean was there, he rushed out, but he was too late, for Mr. McKean had passed away in the carriage. Grandfather told the president what he was trying to complete, but he had found that Mr. McKean had told the president the clue hundreds of times, but he had always forgot the last time he had told him, no-one knew what the clue meant, and the treasure wasn't real."_

_Every spark of joy left Serenity's eyes and body movements. _

"_There's no treasure?" she squeaked, trying to believe. _

"_But there is one thing about grandpa," Serenity looked at him with the last piece of hope left inside of her. _

"_He never listened."_


	2. Charlotte

"I thought you wanted to be a Catrillionair." Teased Benjamin Franklin Gates, the new guardian of his niece, Serenity Dogood Gates, who wasn't really happy to be there.

"It said nothing about negative temps!" spat Serenity, who was now fifteen. Ben's partner, Ian, rolled his eyes.

"How far?" asked Ian, getting very irritated of Serenity's nagging of the cold temperature.

"Almost there…" said Ben's best friend, Riley.

"Riley, you said that a hour ago…" Riley mumbled something under his breath and Serenity spun around and spat

"If I'm a teenaged brat, then you're a low life computer geek." Riley's mouth dropped every time she did that. She turned around and saw Ian's confused look. Ben laughed,

"She has the best hearing ever…if she wants to hear it." "It makes up for my eyesight." She pointed to her glasses. She paused for a second and then slapped her uncle on the arm.

"We're here!" said Riley over the sound of the beeping. The giant snowmobiles came to a halt over a small, but yet large, flat snow covered piece of land.

"You're magnificent Charlotte…" mocked Serenity jumping off of the tire.

"Serenity!" Ben tried to stop her before she jumped, but he didn't get to her in time, for when she hit the snow, she sunk waist deep in snow.

"I HATE SNOW!!" she screamed. She heard Ian laugh and say to her uncle 'Newbie'

"Uncle, why didn't you stop me?" she asked, lying on her back, unable to turn.

"I told you not to leave my side." She tried to fight back, but couldn't do anything other than give him a dirty look. Ben climbed down carefully and pulled Serenity out of the giant hole she had made.

"Ok, now where is she?" asked Riley. Ben turned to Serenity and asked her the same question.

"If we're here, then…" she turned to the waist deep hole she made, then looked under her feet.

"She's under our feet." She looked out at the flat of snow. Ian smiled.

"Let's dig."

Everyone had their metal detectors out and were prowling the grounds. Serenity's metal detector started to go off.

"Uncle, I found something!" she started to dig and a wave of excitement washed in and as quickly as it came, it left. Ben left his metal detector on the ground to mark his spot and ran over to Serenity. He knelt down beside her and she held up a fork.

"Sorry, false alarm." She looked at the rusted fork and held it to Ben.

"Fork?" He sighed and went back to his metal detector. She sighed and went back to her search. Every once in a while she would look over to her uncle and see if he had made any progress. When she looked over she saw him on his knees digging and ran over to him.

"What is it?"

"Listen," he hit his ice pick at a certain part of the snow to hear a crystal clear ping of metal hitting metal. Serenity dropped to her knees and started to shovel out snow with her hands.

They saw a piece of metal and she tried to wipe the snow away from the metal, but it wouldn't come off.

"Serenity," she pulled her hands away as Benjamin pulled out a water-bottle and poured some water on the same spot, revealing a very special name:

_Charlotte_

"We…we…we found it!" Serenity screamed, so excited over their discovery that she couldn't contain herself. She threw her arms around Ben and stared at the name of the ship that they have been looking and researching for years.

"Hello Beautiful." Ben whispered; everyone came and saw the name plated on the metal.

"What are you idiots waiting for? Start digging!" Every scattered and grabbed their excavating gear.


	3. Inside

When the majority of the ship was excavated, Serenity could hear Ian and Ben talk.

"If it weren't for you, I'd still be in D.C. with Serenity figuring how to persuading them to help us." Said Ben, sitting next to Ian.

"You would have found it all the same. Everyone thought you were crazy to do this and bring in your niece with you."

"What did she do?" Ben eyed Serenity, who was brushing snow off the head of the mermaid.

"After you left, she came back in and pitched her version of your pitch to me, so I saw what she thought about this."

"What did she say in general?"

"She asked me how important it is to teach U.S. history to kids, and she said what better opportunity to teach a child that to take them hunting for treasure about the founding fathers and the county…and confessed she also wanted to get out of what she called 'Geo', whatever that its."

Ben rolled his eyes and heard Serenity giggle. Serenity's 'Geo' is her math class, Geometry.

"Are you ready to go Ian?" pointing to the entrance. They both got up and Ian opened the door while Ben called out, in simple Dakota to Serenity and Riley. Riley, having no clue what said, spun in circles asking what he said.

Serenity rolled her eyes and said "It's time to go."

"What did he say?" she turned on her heels and repeated what Ben said and then said,

"He said 'Stop working and let's go inside the boat.'" She turned and yanked Riley's hand and said a low string of Dakota words.

"Talk about frostbite, eh?" Serenity said as she took off her glove. She pressed her thumb on a wooden support beam and let the heat melt the frost until it was a smiley-face.

She smiled and ran after the rest of the group. They entered a place where Serenity figured where the crew slept, as she was looking around she saw hammocks. As she was looking, she found something in one, but a hand on her shoulder made her jump.

"I'm right behind you." Whispered Ben, guiding her way though the hammocks. Riley looked around and moved one of the top hammocks and reviled a mummified sailor. He screamed and fell backwards on the floor, making Serenity giggle and Ben shine his flashlight on him.

"You handled that nicely." said Ben, sarcasim throughout his voice. Serenity offered her hand and said "Smooth move, smart one."

Riley rolled his eyes and gave her his hand. "The storage room." Whispered Ben, yanking on the frosted-over lock. They all looked around and saw barrels upon barrels of something.

"Could it be inside the barrels?" asked Ian, and they all split up and took their ice pick and started to open the barrels.

"Exactly _why_ can't I have a pick?" said Serenity, watching them open the barrels and pour out gunpowder. Ben and Riley looked at Serenity and then at each other, and after a second of silence, they threw their heads back and laughed.

"I don't see what's so funny!" she jumped up and tried to yank Ben's pick out of his hands.

"What's so funny about this is that you can be trusted with a pick in the first place." He gently, yet firmly yanked the pick out of Serenity's hands.

"Do you trust me with a pick or Riley…my personal reference is: Riley with anything sharp and that goes over two miles a hour scares me."

"Sit." Ben pointed to the same barrel she was sitting on, but she moved to a different barrel so she can have full view of Ben and Riley from where she was sitting.


	4. Riddles

Ben was looking at the barrels and stopped at a certain one and said, "Why would the captain be guarding this certain barrel?"

Serenity watched him gently rip the mummified captain's fingers off the barrel and break it open, pouring some gunpowder out before he saw a tan parcel.

"What's that?" said Serenity, a little too loud. Everyone looked up from their barrel except Riley who was having a hard time with an unplugged barrel of streaming gunpowder.

Everyone gathered around him while Riley let Serenity stand in front of him. Ben opened the package to reveal a small box, and as everyone held their breath, Ben opened the box to see it was holding a small, delicatly-carved pipe. Ben held it up with wide eyes examining it.

"What is that?" whispered Serenity, her eyes also wide.

"Is it a billion dollar pipe?" said Riley, leaning over Serenity to get a little better look.

"It's a Shoshone pipe," said Ben, turning it for a better look.

"Is it a million dollar pipe?" Serenity rolled her eyes and asked; "May I?" she held her hand out to hold the 2,000-year-old pipe. Ian intercepted them by putting his hand in-between them.

"Ben, how do you trust her to hold this? Do you promise not drop it?" Ian asked her like she was four.

She clenched her fists and Riley moved his hands from her shoulders to her arms so she won't, as she would put it, 'send his brains sky-high'.

"Promise?" Ian looked at her suspiciously. She opened her mouth to blow him off, but Riley physically restrained her while Ben gave her a look as to 'say it and you will be with your parents'.

Serenity sighed and and muttered unaudible words. Ben relaxed and handed her the pipe.

"Ben, the little brat never promised!"

"That I did, you don't understand the Dakota language." She pulled the pipe out of his hands and examined the pipe.

As she rolled the piped over her fingers, she heard Ben say to Ian "Don't you ever call my niece a brat."

"Look, this has writing on this part." She was pointing to the stick part of the pipe where it was very ornate. She gave it back to her uncle and he looked at it carefully. "

Serenity, you might want to look away." He quietly said this as he pulled his switchblade out of his pocket. Serenity's eyes went wide and she turned and buried her face into Riley's chest.

Ben pricked his thumb with the tip of the knife until blood flowed freely. When Ben gasped from the sharp prick, Riley could feel Serenity shake with fright of the red liquid and the thought that her uncle is hurt.

Ben smeared the blood over the part of the pipe that came off easily from the larger part of the pipe. He opened his blank notebook he carried with him everywhere and rolled the blood on the paper, revealing a poem, but before Ben said the poem, he touched Serenity with his non-bloody hand, letting her know that it's all right to look again.

Everyone looked at the bloody writing, but to almost everyone, it was inlegible, like a forigen language. Finaly, Serenity got the chance to read it aloud, traslating the dialouge from Shoshone to English:

_The legend writ_

_The stain affected_

_The key in Silence undetected_

_Fifty-five in iron pen_

_Mr. Matlack can't offend_

Everyone looked at each other with question in their eyes. "It's a riddle." Said Ben, thinking hard.

Serenity's eyes darted to and fro thinking of the riddle, and then her eyes lit up with an idea.

"I need to think," said Ben, walking to one of the barrels and sat down repeating the verses, as he was saying it, he kept saying things that he thought that would be important.

As he was repeating the third line, Serenity said, "The key in _Silence_ undetected?" when she said silence, she pointed to herself, showing Ben she knew something. Ben nodded only she could see and then continued the ideas through word of mouth.

"There's something, maps have legends and keys." Said Serenity, at the same time as Ben, but a little different. Ben went on.

"Ok, a map, an invisible map…" "What do you mean, invisible?" said Ian, getting frustrated of not getting what is going on.

"The stain effected could refer to a dye or something like that paired with a 'key in silence undetected' could make the undetectable detectable…"

"Unless the key is…" Serenity was going to finish his sentence, but Ian's bodyguard interjected "Prison."

Serenity and Ben looked at each other with a confused look.

"Chicago. Look, I can do it too. Squiggle." Retorted Riley, making fun of the guard.

"Like he said, 'Fifty-five and iron pen' an Iron Pen is a prison."

"Uncle, he has a point," said Serenity to her uncle, then she turned to the guard.

"…But not the right point." Ben sighed and went on.

"But the main writing tool was iron gall ink, the pen is…just a pen." Serenity thought for a moment.

"If it's just a pen, then why say iron pen?"

"'Cause it's a prison." snapped the guard. Serenity sighed and let her head drop.

"Wait, the iron doesn't describe the ink in the pen, it describes…what was penned…it was firm, it was mineral…no, it was firm, it was resolved…it was resolved…Mr. Matlack can't offend…" he looked up at Serenity, wondering if she figured it out.

She shook her head and slightly shrugged her shoulders.

"Timothy Matlack was the scribe for the Continental Congress,"

"Wait, he was a calligrapher, not a writer." said Serenity, not getting where this was going. Ben nodded.

"To make sure he couldn't offend the map, it was put on the back of the revolution that he transcribed…" Ben could see a light-bulb go on in Serenity's eyes.

"Serenity, what was a revolution fifty-five men signed…" she shook her head, not believing that the answer was always there.

"The Declaration of Independence…oh my god…"


	5. Boom

Everyone looked at each other with surprise and awe.

"Ben, there is no 'invisible map' on the back of the Declaration…" said Riley.

"That's clever, really, putting it on a important document would insure the map's survival…and you said that several masons signed it." Said Ian in his British accent that annoyed Serenity to pieces. Ben nodded,

"Yes, nine for sure."

"Then we have to find a way to examine it…" Serenity had a shock across her face as she could almost see him pull out his checkbook.

"You can't just do chemical test on the back of the paper that made us what we are!" By now Ian was also sick of Serenity's Dakota accented voice.

"Then what do you suppose we do?"

"I don't know! Anything but that!" Riley and Ben could almost see electricity pass between them. Ian was the first to pull from the staring contest. It was silent for a moment before Ian had another crazy idea.

"We could borrow it." Serenity's mouth dropped. She tried to say something but nothing came out, so Ben stepped it.

"You mean steal it?" Ian looked over to him with a look of 'of course'.

"I don't think so." Serenity finally found her words as Ian looked at her with disgust.

"Over my dead body you are going to steal that document!" she yelled at him again, making some of the people on the deck of the ship wondering what it was.

Ian ignored Serenity completely."Ben, the Knight's Templar treasure is the treasure of all treasures…"

"No, I didn't know that. Really?" Serenity could hear the sarcasm all the way through Ben's voice.

"Look, Ben," Ian was trying to reason with him. "I can understand your bitterness, I really do, you and your niece have spent your whole lives on this, and the historians have been treating your name like…"

he looked over at the fifteen-year-old girl,

"…crap. You should be able to rub this treasure in their faces. And I want you two to have a chance to do that."

That was the first time since they met to come here that he treated Serenity with respect. Serenity saw that Ben was almost giving in.

"How?" Ben asked cautiously.

Ian smiled. "We all have our areas of expertise. You don't think mine are limited to writing checks, do you?" He laughed once. Ben was starting to get suspicious of him.

"In a past life, I was part of some…questionable legalities." Ian's bodyguard moved to his side.

"I would believe the convict." Serenity had the most questions about this.

"Don't worry Serenity, I got all of this taken care of." Ian said smoothly, but she didn't fall for it.

"No." Ben stood up and stood next to his niece as Ian stood up. As he did, Ben pulled Serenity behind himself to Riley, not sure what Ian was up to. As Ben pushed her farther behind him, Riley took her by the arm and led her back to where he was standing.

"Ben, I really need your help here." Ian was closer to Ben now, and Riley could feel Serenity reach down her leg for something.

"Ian, I'm not letting you steal the Declaration of Independence!" Ian looked down and sighed,

"Ok, then, then all you are now is a nuisance." Ian's bodyguard drew a gun and Ben was now staring down its barrel.

"Ian, is this necessary?" pleaded Serenity, not wanting to lose her only relative under the age of fifty. Ben looked over to Serenity, who nodded lightly and then he looked back over to the guard while she was decoding his message.

"What are you going to do? Shoot me? You can't. We have more to the riddle. Information you don't have, and we do. Serenity and I are the only ones who know it." The guard narrowed his eyes.

"You're bluffing…" Ian said slowly.

"Dude, you've played poker together, you know he can't bluff." huffed Serenity.

"Tell me what I need to know Serenity, or I'll shoot your uncle." snapped Ian.

"What are you doing?" whispered Riley, putting his hand on Serenity's wrist.

"Riley, trust me," He saw what she had in her hand, and, as his eyes widened, she snaked out of his grip.

"You don't want that, do you Serenity?"

"Ian, the second he pulls the trigger," she lifted a small Black Widow Revolver to her temple, "is the same second I pull mine."

"Serenity!" her uncle looked at the gun in horror.

"You never know Ben." While the two were focused on Serenity, Ben pulled out and lit a flare.

"Look what you're standing in." they looked on the floor and there were piles of gunpowder on the floor.

"I you shoot me, I'll drop this, and this place will go up in flames." At the same time Serenity and Riley said "Ben…" Serenity had relocated her gun from her temple to Ian.

"What happens when the flame burns out? Tell me what I need to know Ben!" Ben's eyes when from Ian and the guard and back before he said

"You need to know…the shock and catch!" Ben threw the flare to the ground but Ian caught it.

"Ha, ha, nice try." Ben's eyes were wide with fear for he had run out of ideas. Out of nowhere the flare caught a fire on Ian's glove and he dropped the flare.

The ground caught fire immediately and erupted into flames as Ian was trying to put out his own fire. Ben took the chance and dove into a pile of barrels, missing the two shots that were fired at him.

When Ben had dropped the flare, Serenity shot and missed Ian, she dropped to the floor and made Riley do the same. Ian and the guard ran out the door, but before Ian shut it, he gave one last glare at Ben before a flame jumped in his face. Ian slammed the door and shut the cross bar.

Ben jumped up and started to pound on the floor, when he heard a hollow sound he yelled for the two on the other side. He opened a secret latch and pushed the two to it.

"What is this?" yelled Riley over the roar of the flames.

"Smuggler's hold, get in!" Riley jumped in first followed by Serenity, still trying to get the gun back in the holder. Ben yanked it out of her hands and shoved her through the hole.. They ran through the passageways as Ian and his bodyguards ran towards the snowmobiles.

When the three got to a safe spot, Ben tossed serenity an empty gun and shut a small door and yelled to get down; he jumped down, shielding Serenity just as the _Charlotte_ exploded.

When the explosion was over, there was a smoke tower of over thirty feet, and raining wood. Ian and his crew in the snowmobiles stopped and looked to take in the the damage.

Ian got back into the cabin of the machine and said, "Let's go, before someone sees the smoke." The driver, who also held the gun in the storage room, sighed and drove off, leading the way.

In the smuggler's hold, Ben and Riley were the first to break through the snow, and Ben helped Serenity out. They all were frightened, but not as much as her. Ben put his arm around her and held her close.


	6. Archive

When everyone was calm, they climbed out of the hold and onto a no longer visible deck.

"There's a Inuit village nine miles away from here, it's popular with bush pilots." Said Ben, scanning the horizon.

"Ok, now what?" Said Riley, getting the feeling that Serenity isn't going to say something for a while.

"We go home." Ben said simply.

"What are we going to do with Ian? He's going to steal the Declaration Ben." Riley tried to talk to Ben, but he was already walking away with a silent Serenity in front of him. Ben stopped and looked at Riley, and said,

"We stop him."

After they landed after the 20-hour flight, they went to the National Archives and went to see Dr. Chase.

Serenity looked over to her uncle who was reading something about the seventieth anniversary of the National Archives.

"You're still paying for this." She was in a small dark brown tank top, a semi short denim skirt and her contacts in.

"Mr. Brown, Dr. Chase is ready to see you." Said the doctor's assistant.

"Mr. Brown?" asked Riley.

"Our name doesn't get a lot of respect in the academic world."

"Then who am I?" asked Serenity, who was somewhat lost.

"Make something up."

"Are you kidding me?" They walked into the office to find a woman on the phone.

"Good morning lady and gentlemen. Abigail Chase, and you are…?"

"Paul Brown." Said Ben, Serenity was going to have a hard time with this. Riley said something off the top of his head.

"Bill."

Serenity rolled her eyes. "Megan."

Both men looked at her with amazement, for one moment ago, she had a light voice, thick with a dakota accent, but is sweet, gentle one.

"How is a beautiful young girl like you stuck with these fine men?"

"I'm visiting for the summer. I'm Paul's niece." She said all of this in a perfect light Dakota accent.

"Ah, may I help you?" said Dr. Chase, looking at the two men. Ben pointed something out,

"Your accent, Pennsylvania-Dutch?"

"Saxony-German."

Serenity leaned over and whispered, "If you're going to flirt, then do something that you can't get wrong."

Riley was confused. "You're not American?"

"I'm American, I just wasn't born here. Please don't touch!" Serenity looked over to where Dr. Chase was looking.

Ben was about to touch some old looking buttons, but stopped. "Sorry, I saw your George Washington Campaign buttons. You're missing the 1778 inaugural."

Serenity closed her eyes so that she wouldn't show herself rolling her eyes. _"Hey,"_ she thought, _"at least that's better than the accent pull."_

The door opened once agian. "May I help you?"


End file.
